The CourtyardsVisitors to the Palace enter through Prince Alfred's Courtyard. The Pinto watch is famous here, whose four dials show the time, date, month and moon phases. Four bronze Moors strike the hour by striking the gongs with their hammers. It was created by Gaetano Vella in 1745. The life-size bronze sculpture of Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, has guarded the courtyard named after him since 1861. Despite his naked nakedness, Neptune stands majestically and shamelessly, holding a trident in the right hand in the background of a fountain bearing the coat of arms of Grand Master Perellos. It is a creation of the Flemish artist Jean Boulogne better known by his pseudonym Giambologna. The sculpture stood in the center of a fountain in the old fish market near the church of Our Lady of Liesse, and celebrated the completion of the Wignacourt aqueduct which brought water to the new capital.StaircaseA spiral staircase winds up from the courtyard of Nettuno on the Piano Nobile, where the rooms of the palace are located. This was built during the reign of Grand Master Verdalle as a ramp and was updated to its current form during the governorship of Gaspard le Merchant. A marble plaque at the base of the steps commemorates the twenty-eight Grand Masters who governed Malta. A corresponding plaque above lists the governors who ruled Malta during the British occupation. Armory Corridor It is 62 meters long and 5 meters wide. On its walls hang portraits of several Grand Masters of the Order. Lunettes depicting Maltese landscapes adorn the walls along their entire length. These works are by Nicolau Nasoni from Siena; also by Nasoni are the decorative paintings in the centre...... half of the paper ......the Paggeria – or Sala dei Paggetti. The yellow damask has since been replaced with green. Inside this room there are a French and a Dutch desk, a silver model of the Palazzo Verdala by Francesco Meli (1903), six white and blue Persian vases donated to the Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt by the Shah, Italian majolica vases with snake-shaped handles, a 16th-century chandelier and on a side table is a 17th-century astronomical clock with images of Leda and the swan on the base. This watch was made by Charles Andre' Boulle. It also features at the base the image of Father Time holding a scythe and four sphinxes. There are also paintings by Joseph de Ribera (Lo Spagnoletto): Saint Peter freed from prison and Jacob the shepherd; A portrait of Carlo Teodoro, Duke of Bavaria by Pompeo Batoni; and a portrait of a victorious La Vallette in chivalric dress, by de Favray.